1

all the world, that though, in the constant course of your ministry, you have never failed, on proper occasions, to recommend the loving, honouring, and reverencing the prince's person," so as never to break his royal shins, nor tread upon his heels; yet you never intended men should pay any submission or obedience to him any longer than he acted according to the will and pleasure of his people. This you say is the opinion of Christ, St. Peter, and St. Paul: And faith I am glad to hear it; for I never thought the prigs had been Whigs before: But since your lordship has taught them to declare for rebellion, you may easily persuade them to do as much for profaneness and immorality; and then they, together with your lordship, shall be enrolled members of our club. Your lordship, a little after, (I suppose, to strengthen the testimony of the forementioned authors) takes care to tell us, that "this always was, and still is, your own judgment in these matters." You need not fear we should suspect your constancy and perseverance; for my Lord Somers, that great genius, who is the life and soul, the head and heart of our party, has long since observed, that we have never been disappointed in any of our Whig bishops, but they have always unalterably acted up, or, to speak properly, down to their principles.

It is impossible for me, my lord, in this short address, to do justice to every part of your incomparable preface: Nor need I run riot in encomium and panegyric, since you can perform that part so much better for yourself; for you only give those praises, which you only can deserve; as you have formerly proved, in the dedication of your "Essay upon Miracles," to Dr. Godolphin, where you declare your work to be the most perfect of any upon that subject, in

2

1 What the bishop did really say was that he did not think himself "authorized to tell the people that either Christ, St. Peter, or St. Paul, or any other holy writer, had, by any doctrine delivered by them, subverted the laws and constitution of the country in which they lived, or put them in a worse condition, with respect to their civil liberties, than they would have been had they not been Christians." [T. S.]

2 Dr. Godolphin, a residentiary of St. Paul's, had caused Fleetwood to be given the rectorship of St. Austin's, London, a living in the gift of the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's. Fleetwood dedicated to him his celebrated "Essay upon Miracles." Godolphin became vice-provost of Eton. [T. S.]

order to pay a very uncommon compliment to your patron, by telling him you had prevailed with your modesty to say so much of your performance, because you would not be thought to make so ill a compliment to him, as to present him with what you had not a great esteem for yourself.

Though I can't go through the whole preface, yet I think myself obliged in gratitude to thank your lordship in a more particular manner for the last part of it, where you display the glories of the Whig ministry in such strong and lasting colours, as must needs cheer and refresh the sight of all Whig spectators, and dazzle the eyes of the Tories. Here, your lordship rises, if possible above yourself: Never was such strength of thought, such beauty of expression, so happily joined together. Heavens! Such force, such energy in each pregnant word! Such fire, such fervour, in each glowing line! One would think your lordship was animated with the same spirit with which our hero fought. Who can read, unmoved, these following strokes of oratory? "Such was the fame, such was the reputation, such was the faithfulness and zeal to such a height of military glory, such was the harmony and consent, such was the blessing of God," &c. O! the irresistible charm of the word "such!" Well, since Erasmus wrote a treaty in praise of Folly, and my Lord Rochester an excellent poem upon Nothing, I am resolved to employ the "Spectator," or some of his fraternity, (dealers in words) to write an encomium upon Such. But whatever changes our language may undergo (and every thing that is English is given to change) this happy word is sure to live in your immortal preface. Your lordship does not end yet, but to crown all, has another such in reserve, where you tell the world, "We were just entering on the ways that lead to such a peace, as would have answered all our prayers," &c. Now, perhaps some snarling Tory might impertinently inquire, when we might have expected such a peace? I answer, when the Dutch could get nothing by the war, nor we Whigs lose anything by a peace; or to speak in plain terms, (for every one knows I am a free speaker as well as a freethinker) when we had exhausted all the nation's treasure, (which every body knows could not have been long first) and so far enriched ourselves, and beggared our fellowsubjects, as to bring them under a necessity of submitting to

what conditions we should think fit to impose; and this too we should soon have effected, if we had continued in power. But alas just in that critical juncture, when (as we thought) our designs were ripe for execution, the scene changed. "God, for our sins," as your lordship wisely observes, "permitted the spirit of discord" (that is the doctrine of obedience and submission to princes) "to go forth, and by troubling the camp, the city, and the country (and Oh that it had spared the places sacred to His worship) to spoil for a time this beautiful and pleasant prospect, and give us in its stead, I know not what Oh exquisite! How pathetically does your lordship complain of the downfall of Whiggism, and Daniel Burgess's' meeting-house! The generous compassion your lordship has shewn upon this tragical occasion, makes me believe your lordship will not be unaffected with an accident that had like to have befallen a poor whore of my acquaintance about that time, who being big with Whig, was so alarmed at the rising of the mob, that she had like to have miscarried upon it; for the logical jade presently concluded, (and the inference was natural enough) that if they began with pulling down meetinghouses, it might end in demolishing those houses of pleasure, where she constantly paid her devotion; and, indeed, there seems a close connection between extempore prayer and extempore love. I doubt not, if this disaster had reached your lordship before, you would have found some room in that moving parenthesis, to have expressed your concern for it.

I come now to that last stroke of your lordship's almighty pen; I mean that expressive dash which you give when you come to the new ministry, where you break off with an artful aposiopesis, and by refusing to say any

1 Daniel Burgess (1643-1713) was the son of a Wiltshire clergyman, and was educated at Westminster School and Magdalen College, Oxford. Under the protection of Lord Ossory he taught, for some time, in Ireland; but after the Restoration he settled in England, forsook the principles of the Establishment, and became a nonconformist minister. His chapel in Brydges Street, Covent Garden, was destroyed by the mob during the Sacheverell riots. He was quite an original character, as may be gathered from the reason he gave why the descendants of Jacob were called Israelites—because God did not choose to have His people called Jacobites. [T. S.]

thing of them yourself, leave your reader to think the worst they possibly can. Here your lordship shews yourself a most consummate orator, when even your very silence is thus eloquent.

Before I take my leave, I cannot but congratulate your lordship upon that distinguishing mark of honour which the House of Commons has done your Preface, by ordering it to be burnt. This will add a never-failing lustre to your character, when future ages shall read, how a few pages of your lordship's could alarm the representative body of the nation. I know your lordship had rather live in a blaze, than lie buried in obscurity; and would, at any rate, purchase immortality, though it be in flames. Fire being a mounting element, is a proper emblem of your lordship's aspiring genius.1

I shall detain your lordship no longer, but according to your example, conclude with a short prayer; (though praying, I confess, is not my talent). May you never want opportunities of thus signalizing yourself, but be "transmitted to posterity," under the character of one who dares sacrifice every thing that is most dear to you (even your own darling labours) to promote the interest of our party, and stand sainted in the Whig calendar, as a martyr for the cause. This is the sincere wish of the greatest (next yourself) of your lordship's admirers,

WHARTON.

1 The Bishop of St. Asaph, from his letter to the Bishop of Salisbury (17th June, 1712), seems to have taken the judgment of the House of Commons on his preface with indifference. "The manner of my receiving the indignity," he writes, "put upon my Preface was neither like a Christian nor like a philosopher, but like a very worldly man. I knew the whole process; I knew it to be a piece of revenge taken by a wicked party, that found themselves sorely stung, and it affected me accordingly, i.e., very little. I am not one that love to be the talk of the town; and in this part I confess I was uneasy, although, I think, the talk was very much in my favour. . . . If their design was to intimidate me, they have lost it utterly; or if to suppress the book, it happens much otherwise; for everybody's curiosity is awakened by this usage, and the bookseller finds his account in it above anyone else." [T. S.]

REMARKS

ON

BISHOP FLEETWOOD'S PREFACE.'

THE

"Ecce iterum Crispinus!"

HE Bishop of St. Asaph's famous Preface having been so much buffeted of late between advocates and opposers, I had a curiosity to inspect some of his other works. I sent to the booksellers in Duck Lane and Little Britain, who returned me several of the sermons which belonged to that Preface; among others, I took notice of that upon the death of the Duke of Gloucester," which had a little preface of its own, and was omitted, upon mature deliberation, when those sermons were gathered up into a volume; though considering the bulk, it could hardly be spared. It was a great masterpiece of art in this admirable author, to write such a sermon, as, by help of a preface, would pass for a Tory discourse in one reign, and, by omitting that preface, would denominate him a Whig in another: Thus by changing the position, the picture represents either the pope or the devil, the cardinal or the fool. I confess it was malicious in me, and what few others would have done, to rescue those sermons out of their dust and oblivion; without which, if the author had so pleased, they might have passed for new preached as well as new printed. Neither would the former preface have risen up in judgment to confound the latter.

This second attack on the Bishop of St. Asaph appeared in vol. ii. of the "Examiner," Number 34, on July 24th, 1712. [T. S.]

2 William, son of George, Prince of Denmark, by the Princess Anne. He died July 30th, 1700. Marlborough had been appointed his governor, and the Bishop of Salisbury his tutor. [T. S.]